Western Wisconsin Health is excited and proud to announce the roll out of the We Care Bags program! The We Care Bags program is designed to provide a bag of food and basic necessities to patients in need starting with our emergency department and community paramedic program on February 5, 2018. In addition, patients will be provided information on local food shelves and other resources that may help them meet their needs.

This program is being funded through a grant from the Packers Foundation in response to our community health improvement goal to decrease food insecurity in our region. The primary goal of the We Care Bags program is to increase knowledge and assessment skills in clinicians to identify patients with food insecurity and to decrease crisis situations regarding lack of access to food and local resources.

“The Western Wisconsin Health staff and I are so excited for the We Care Bag program,” said Peter Mudge, Director of Acute Care Services at WW Health. “This is an opportunity to really impact our patients and the communities we serve at the point of care. In a very purposeful and meaningful way, our staff is dedicated to coming up with new innovative and creative ways to enhance patient services for our community and make sure they have access to the resources they need.”

Food insecurity is identified as a lack of access at times to enough healthy food for an active healthy life. 1 in 10 adults and 1 in 6 children in Saint Croix and Pierce Counties experience food insecurity. Food insecurity impacts a person’s ability to manage acute and chronic health conditions which can result in prolonged healing time and readmissions.

Please contact Natasha Ward, Director of Community Health Improvement at natasha.ward@wwhealth.org or Rosa Magnus, Development Manager at rosa.magnus@wwhealth.org with any questions regarding the program. Learn more about WW Health’s programs and services at wwhealth.org.